Engineer and economist Kåre Knutsen worked for many years for one of the world’s largest companies in Belgium and Switzerland, and has more than 25 years of experience in European business development. Now he is back in Norway as part of the team at Oppsteg, and in his hometown Odda he contributes to major projects for the cornerstone company Boliden.
Kåre went to work for NATO in Belgium, where he met his Belgian wife Anne. With a stopover back in Bergen and engineering studies, it was eventually love that brought him back to the continent. After studies in Belgium and Switzerland, a long career began at one of the world’s largest FMCG companies, Procter & Gamble. In the end, it was an old friendship from his NATO days that was the key to getting Kåre to use his expertise in Western Norway again. Rune Hatletvedt had built up Infund, and Kåre’s expertise was tailor-made for one of its major customers, Boliden in Odda. Since 2020, Kåre has been involved in Green Zink Odda 4.0, a long-term sustainability and development project with great importance for the company and the local community. Now they are investing further in Oppsteg, where the speciality is precisely the planning and implementation of innovation projects.
Hardanger Folkeblad has made a portrait of Kåre, you can read a Norwegian version here.
Photo: Eivind Dahle Sjåstad